Czech President Milos Zeman says his government is negotiating the release of two Czech women kidnapped in Pakistan in March.

Zeman said on October 16 he had written to the Pakistani president asking him to pay special attention to the case. The Czech Foreign Ministry has declined comment.

Antonie Chrastecka and Hana Humpalova, who are both 24, were seized in March while travelling by microbus through Pakistan's southwestern province of Balochistan near the Afghan border, en route to India. No one has claimed responsibility.

A video emerged in June showing the two demanding the release of Pakistani national Aafia Siddiqui from a U.S. prison. Siddiqui, a neuroscientist, was given an 86-year sentence by a U.S. court in 2010 for shooting at FBI agents and soldiers in Afghanistan.